Montecito! (excuse me) While our fairly liquid little village has never been known as the “Home of the Mink Stole,” neither has it ever sported the tagline “Central Coast Epicenter of Tweens Helling around on BMX Bikes.” That branding would likely have been discouraged by the Montecito Association. The descriptor, though, would not have been inaccurate. “We were just free in Montecito. We lived close enough where you could ride bikes and skateboard or walk, and parents didn’t worry about anything.” Trent Watanabe has been the Montecito Journal’s Art Director for 18 years, and is an accomplished artist in his own right. He is also the perpetually grinning ambassador of an earlier time in this town. “The look is the same Montecito. When I’m by School House Road and around Mount Carmel, those are kind of the back roads we took. They feel the same. The mix of little houses and big houses hasn’t really changed. But there were a lot more kids. I remember a lot more kids playing around and riding bikes.”